Well weighting doesn't have to be done with rocks. I have two methods...One I just use the garden push pin things to hold the fabric in place or...much of the time I weight it down and I just looked around to find something that would hold it. As it turned out it was some scrap rebar that was left from our homebuilding....anything that has any weight to it...

Don't know of an online resource to point you to, but I'll try to give my $0.02.

Your success will depend on how large of an area you are trying to cover. I will assume a 4x8 raised bed, because that seems to be the standard. Using standard geometry, a half-circle with a diameter of 48" will have a circumfrence of 75" (or pi*R). So, your row cover will need to be at minimum 80" wide. Further, your pvc hoops should be 75" long, plus 4" or so on either end for anchoring, for a total of 83".

Attaching to the wooden sides will be relatively easy. I have used standard plumbing pipe strapping, screwed onto the sides and holding the pvc tight. Usually two per end, but you could get away with one strap per end.

Now, this is where is gets tricky for boxed beds. If you put the pvc on the outside of the box, there will be a gap between the wood and the cover. If you put it on the inside of the bed, you can then get the cover flush against the side. The best way to have easily removed row covers is to buy a bunch of 1x2 strapping, and roll up the ends of the row cover around them twice and then staple. This provides enough weight (usually) to hold the ends down over the outside edges of your box beds. If you need more weight, you can use eye hooks screwed into the 1x2's and rig up some bungee cords and ground anchors, etc.

Another option, perhaps simpler but more expensive, is to use commerically available clips. This clip over the row cover and onto the pvc ribs. However, I find accessing the bed underneath to be a bit of a pain, having to unclip and then reclip. Simply lifting up a 1x2 and laying it on the other side of the bed is a pretty simple prospect.

As for the ends of the tunnels, I have found that if you gather up the ends, pull tight, and then either wrap with a bungee, or clamp with a large plastic woodworking clamp, this is usually enough.

Hope this helps!
Michael

I can't just use random junk as weights.

First, we've moved a lot and thus don't have much of the random junk that accumulates when you spend decades in one place. LOL

Second, DH is particular about the appearance of the garden since the majority is readily visible from both the street and the neighbor's driveway and patio. We live right in town and, since the well-kept appearance of the neighborhood was part of what drew us here, we don't wish to be the bad neighbors who create an eyesore so what's fine in the country isn't appropriate.

:-)

Will the staples hold plastic as well as fabric?

Do they continue to hold if you are frequently pulling them up to harvest tonight's dinner?

I use a version of the mini tunnels developed by the Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation, for both row cover and plastic, depending on the season. As you see, ropes are used over the top of the tunnel. These hold the plastic/row cover for you when you have raised, for venting, harvesting, weeding, etc, as well as keeping it in place during windy days. It doesn't always keep the chipmunks out, however!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mini Tunnel Plans

wow that is an amazing link!

Last year i used shade cloth over some arugula and lettuces. The cloth was supported by lengths of 1/2" PVC slipped over 2' pieces of rebar hammered halfway into the ground. i attached the bottom edge of the shade cloth to the bed with bungee cords, tying off to the holes i had earlier drilled for SFG string. Wasn't trying to keep bugs out so i left 12-18" perimeter gap for easy access but remember thinking that some of that peel and stick velcro might be just the thing if i wanted to try insect barrier cloth later on. The sides of my beds are metal so the peel and stick would be the a better choice for me but you could tack some of the regular stuff to the sides of your wooden bed. The PVC ribs would have to be run to the inside of the bed for this to work, as m. lorne already pointed out, and you might have to reinforce the edge of the row cover.

The PVC hoops are still in place even tho' i haven't used them in awhile-i think they look cool ; ) -but i might try tying off some CRW to the arches and growing my own shade at some point in the future.

Apparently, the usual white row covers don't work for everybody. Here's Fanfortony's excellent alternative. Scroll down toward bottom of page for the picture.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulle row cower

Thanks. You are all so helpful!

1x2x8 furring strips are the cheapest lumber known to Lowes so that sounds like the best idea. It seems that a few extra could be formed into supports at each end of the bed. that I could lift the bar up to in order to harvest and/or ventilate the bed as well.

Row covers are ugly. I remove them as soon as possible and I live in a semi rural area. I use dark green sand bags to secure the sides. It's the white color row cover that is ugly, not the sand bag.

I wouldn't treat my neighbors to a plastic covered hoop frame and the nearest one is 500 ft away.

I think I'll try a piece of brown shade cloth weighted with sand bags this year. Hopefully it won't stand out so much.

Zeuspaul

Stones as hold downs actually look pretty decorative. Use large-ish stones, fairly flat if possible  3" à 6" is a good minimum. Rebar also works well and is easy to remove and re-apply  toss some mulch over it if you like, but it rusts to a natural appearance and may not be too visible.

I would stay away from garden staples / push pins and anything else that pierces the fabric. As soon as you remove a pin, there's a hole in the fabric and the bugs can get right through it. You can try to keep the holes part of a fringe that stays next to the ground but this gets more difficult. Once a few flea beetles etc. are inside they have a predator-free, food-rich breeding environment.

Also worth mentioning is that floating row covers work perfectly fine for greens and many other plants. It's not a special kind of cover, just means applying them without hoops or other framework. Just drape the cover loosely over the bed and keep it on until the plants are big enough to do without the cover or, if they require insect pollination, are flowering (or the pest season is over). The plants themselves, as they grow, will support the cover.

When I gardened in Western PA and in Massachusetts I never thought that I'd miss having rocks. They were such a pain to dig out of the places I was trying to work in and the beds grew a new crop every winter. It never occurred to me that there could be any place that had no rocks at all.

But both in Delaware where I last lived and here in the North Carolina Sandhills there are no rocks of any kind at all. If you see a rock you know that it was brought in from somewhere else and paid for.

When you're used to reaching for a rock to hold things down its amazing how lost you feel without them. LOL

If the covers are attached to the 1 X 2 X 8 strips of wood, the covers will not be pulled out from under the wood strips when the breezes cause the fabric to billow. Roll the fabric around the wood a couple of times and then staple the fabric in place. Tending to the plants is made much more efficient when all you have to do is lift the strip of wood with the fabric already held in place.

This is the first year I've used the row covers on raised beds using the pvc (covered wagon look)and tried all kinds of ways to weight the fabric down and even made trenches to hold the weights in place. The fabric never stays in place for very long. The wood strip idea is the best I've tried.

Next year I'll just be using the fabric to protect the plants from the cold, frost and insects and switch to tulle when danger of frost is past.

I bought 20 feet row covers at Gardener's Supply. Google them if you like. I love them but noticed that I was raising a crop of flies underneath so I had to open it up and let them all out. They call it an insect cover--go figure. My lettuce heads live underneath. I really like them. They have hoops that stick into the ground about 6 inches. I think they work well.

Flies were getting into and under the covers when the weather was cool, but since it has been warm the flies seem to stay out. The flies were congregating where I had green pop bottles filled with water (that I was using for weights). The water in the bottles held the heat and I decided it was a good idea because of the unpredictable and unusual cool weather we were having and the fact that all my plants were at the time just little seedlings. But the flies did congregate near the green bottles versus the clear bottles.